First and probably only post here.  I was getting an MBA at UC Berkeley from 2008-10.  U of U undergrad 05.  One of my classmates - Chris Giles (giving the name so you all can check his Linkedin) interned for the PAC-12 conference in Walnut Creek summer of 09.  When we returned to classes fall of 09 he told me his summer task was researching Pac-12 expansion.  He had Utah and Colorado, and two other interns had the TX / OK schools.

I asked him about BYU. (I'm not a hater, little brother graduated from Y, etc).  I felt it was a mistake not to include them.  He said BYU was never researched, never included, never considered from the start.  The University Presidents give the marching orders and BYU was never in the hunt at all, period.

BYU's program academically, research, otherwise, never qualified.  It never got to a discussion of markets, football, or any of those items.  Never even had a brief delivered to Larry Scott's desk on BYU.  Never happened.  Pac-10 never wanted BYU they didn't fit the conference.  Rose Bowl Operating Company had no say.  Not even in the process.